Michal Kwiatkowski might have spoken for the entire peloton with his finish-line fist pump at the end of stage 15. The Polish champion hadn’t won the stage — in fact, he’d finished more than 13 minutes down on a day that was won from a big breakaway. Rather, the gesture seems to have been one of relief, of having delivered his two leaders (Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome) to the second rest day unscathed.

Stage 15 was another reasonably relaxing one for the GC contenders. Dan Martin spent some time off the front, trying to pull back time, but for the majority of the big names it was a day of sitting in the bunch while those out fought for stage honours. There was a bevy of attacks, fractures and regroupings in that big lead group, but ultimately it was just three riders that reached the finish with a chance at victory.

Magnus Cort Nielsen was the strongest of the trio, and easily accounted for Ion Izagirre and Bauke Mollema in the sprint that decided the day. The GC contenders were far more sedate when they reached Carcassone 13 minutes later.

After a rest day today, the riders will head into the Pyrenees for the final, crucial, stages of the Tour. It will be hard to stop Sky from claiming the top step of the overall podium in Paris — and probably the top two steps — but just about anything can happen in the mountains of the Tour’s final week. For the sake of the spectacle, let’s hope that something unexpected does happen.

Chris Froome takes a moment at the start to sign a copy of his book, “The Climb”, for a fan.

Alejandro Valverde rides back to his team bus after Movistar was acknowledged at the stage start as leader of the teams’ classification.

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The riders roll out to begin stage 15.

There were many attacks early on to establish the early breakaway.

Peter Sagan again forced his way into the breakaway to get more points for the green jersey. The Slovakian now owns a staggering 100 green jerseys, the most classification-leading jerseys of one colour by any rider at the Tour, ever.

Geraint Thomas was well protected in the bunch by his Sky teammates throughout the stage. Gianni Moscon, seen here at the front of the line-up, was later ejected from the race for striking young Frenchman Elie Gesbert.

Rafal Majka attacked from a big breakaway group on the day’s final climb — the Pic de Nore — before catching the race leaders then hitting the front on his own. He is now fifth in the KOM classification, a competition he’s won twice before.

Fabien Grellier rides under the flag of the Midi-Pyrenees region. Grellier was in the early break and ended up 14th on the stage.

Lunch time.

With 13km to go, Majka was caught by a chasing group, leaving eight riders at the front of the race. With 6km left, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Bauke Mollema and Ion Izagirre got away from the others and built a race-winning lead.

To beat the fast-finishing Cort, Izagirre and Mollema would have to attack late. They tried, but the Dane marked all the moves and sprinted to victory.

Cort’s victory comes at his Tour de France debut. He is also a two-time Vuelta a España stage winner.

The GC favourites rolled through calmly more than 13 minutes later.

Michal Kwiatkowski posted a similar photo to Twitter saying “Rest day mood.” The riders now have a day off before the final push to Paris.

A touch of wheels in the closing kilometre saw Serge Pauwels crash heavily.

The Belgian is now out of the Tour with a fractured elbow — an injury that will require surgery.